The present invention relates to an apparatus for washing an inking arrangement of a printing machine, and more particularly to an apparatus for automatically washing a doctor blade for removing ink from ink rollers of the inking arrangement.
An inking arrangement is used for distributing ink, which is transferred from an ink fountain to a rolling surface of a form cylinder. The inking arrangement generally contains an ink fountain roller within the ink fountain, an ink ductor (i.e. feeder roller) which intermittently swings and delivers the ink, a plurality of ink distributing rollers, and an inking roller (i.e. form roller) which contacts the form cylinder. When particles of foreign matter such as dusts, paper fluff, anti-offset powder, etc. are adhered to a roller or rollers of the inking arrangement, the printed materials lack clarity and the final printed result is imperfect caused by the particles, because the desired printing does not come out well. Therefore, the rollers must be washed so as to remove the particles. Further, the rollers should be washed every time when colors of colorprinting are changed. In general, the washing operation is carried out once or twice a day, but a number of washing operations are needed when multi-color printing, such as four-color or six-color printing, is carried out because the multi-color printing needs the same number of inking arrangements as the number of colors. Additionally, when ink is to be changed in such a case that a special ink is used, another washing should be carried out.
Conventionally, an ink roller washing apparatus is known in which a doctor blade is fixed to a washing vessel. According to the conventional washing apparatus, communication between an ink ductor and other ink distributing rollers is first shut off, and inking roller (i.e. feeder roller) is spaced apart from a rolling surface of a form cylinder. While the inking roller is sustained from the rolling surface of the form cylinder, the aforementioned washing apparatus is manually installed on the inking arrangement so that a tip of the doctor blade may contact an ink roller. Then the rollers of the inking arrangement are rotated while washing liquid is poured from the above to remove or wash out a foreign matter as well as ink which is adhered to the rolling surface of the ink roller by means of the doctor blade. Ink and foreign matter removed by the doctor blade are transferred to the washing vessel. Foreign matter as well as ink both of which are adhered to the rolling surface of the other rollers of the inking arrangement, is transferred in turn to the cleaned ink rollers. Thus, all of the rollers of the inking arrangement are washed and cleaned.
According to the aforementioned conventional washing apparatus which should be manually installed and removed every time when washing is needed and finished, respectively, the working of installation and removal of the apparatus is quite troublesome and inefficient running of the printing machine results. Particularly when the washing apparatus is removed, it is not only troublesome to manually carry the vessel in which a great amount of used washing liquid is contained, but also likely that the washing liquid splashes to soil the elements of the printing machine when the vessel is being carried by an operational personnel. Further, ink adhered to the doctor blade should be washed out separately by the use of a suitable solvent. Thus, the conventional washing apparatus not only requires awkwardly troublesome working and operation but also results in dirt or soil of operating personnel's clothing and hands as well as of printing machine. This is likely to cause the operating personnel to shorten or abbreviate some of the washing operations, with the result of deterioration of the printed products. Furthermore, since the washing operation is carried out adjacent rotating rollers, severe dangers to the operating personnel may result. Moreover, it takes a long time to complete the washing operation, resulting in an inefficiency of a printing operation.